Demons

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Demons

The word "demon" comes from the Greek word daimon. It originally did not mean an "evil" spirit, but simply a spirit intermediate in power between gods and humans. For example, Socrates was quoted by Plato as saying he got some guidance from a daimon. Such spirits could be beneficial, harmful, both, or neither. Only later were they thought to be necessarily "evil" -- that is, "evil" according to what is considered "evil" by the prevailing religion.

As you read through the descriptions of demons in the grimoires, especially the Goetia, you may notice something interesting. Not all the demons are "evil" by secular modern standards. Only some of the demons are said to do nasty things like causing diseases and floods. Others do more beneficial things, like helping people learn various arts and sciences, including math, astronomy, natural science in general, medicine, music, poetry, the ability to write and speak well, and even "ethics" and "moral philosophy,"

If you're from a nonreligious or only moderately religious background, you may be wondering: Why would spirits who teach useful knowledge be considered "evil"?
In hardcore fundamentalist Christianity, the only "good" thing is total subservience to the Christian God. Anything else is "evil," no matter how beneficial to humans.

To the Satanist, there is no such thing as forbidden knowledge. We aim to "become as gods," to whatever extent that's possible. Knowledge is power.

In religion, occultism and folklore, a demon or daemon, daimon; from Greek daimôn, is a supernatural being described as something that is not human and in ordinary usage malevolent. The original neutral Greek word "daimon" does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of the Koine (Hellenistic and New Testament Greek) daimonion and later ascribed to any cognate words sharing the root, originally intended to denote a spirit or spiritual being.

In Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the derived Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism. In Western occultism and Renaissance magic, which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic, Jewish demonology and Christian tradition, a demon is a spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled. Many of the demons in literature were once fallen angels.

Terminology

Ancient Greek has a word for "spirit" or "divine power", much like the Latin genius or numen. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the etymology of the Greek word as from the verb daiesthai "to divide, distribute." The Greek conception which notably appears in the works of Plato, where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates. To distinguish the classical Greek concept from its later Christian interpretation, it is usually anglicized as either daemon or daimon rather than demon.

The Greek term does not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. The term first acquired its now-current evil connotations in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, informed by the mythology of the ancient Semitic religions. This connotation was inherited by the Koine text of the New Testament. The medieval and neo-medieval conception of a "demon" in Western civilization (see the Medieval grimoire called the Ars Goetia) derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late (Roman) Antiquity. Greco-Roman concepts of daemons that passed into Christian culture are discussed in the entry daemon, though it should be duly noted that the term referred only to a spiritual force, not a malevolent supernatural being. The Hellenistic "daemon" eventually came to include many Semitic and Near Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity.
The supposed existence of demons is an important concept in many modern religions[who?] and occultist traditions. In some present-day cultures, demons are still feared in popular superstition, largely due to their alleged power to possess living creatures. In the contemporary Western occultist tradition (perhaps epitomized by the work of Aleister Crowley), a demon, such as Choronzon, the "Demon of the Abyss", is a useful metaphor for certain inner psychological processes ("inner demons"), though some may also regard it as an objectively real phenomenon. Some scholars believe that large portions of the demonology (see Asmodai) of Judaism, a key influence on Christianity and Islam, originated from a later form of Zoroastrianism, and were transferred to Judaism during the Persian era.

Psychological archetype

Psychologist Wilhelm Wundt remarks that "among the activities attributed by myths all over the world to demons, the harmful predominate, so that in popular belief bad demons are clearly older than good ones." Sigmund Freud develops on this idea and claims that the concept of demons was derived from the important relation of the living to the dead: "The fact that demons are always regarded as the spirits of those who have died recently shows better than anything the influence of mourning on the origin of the belief in demons."
M. Scott Peck, an American psychiatrist, wrote two books on the subject, People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil and Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption.
Peck describes in some detail several cases involving his patients. In People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil he gives some identifying characteristics for evil persons whom he classifies as having a character disorder. In Glimpses of the Devil, A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption Peck goes into significant detail describing how he became interested in exorcism in order to debunk the "myth" of possession by evil spirits–only to be convinced otherwise after encountering two cases which did not fit into any category known to psychology or psychiatry. Peck came to the conclusion that possession was a rare phenomenon related to evil. Possessed people are not actually evil; they are doing battle with the forces of evil.[8] His observations on these cases are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (IV) of the American Psychiatric Association.
Although Peck's earlier work was met with widespread popular acceptance, his work on the topics of evil and possession has generated significant debate and derision. Much was made of his association with (and admiration for) the controversial Malachi Martin, a Roman Catholic priest and a former Jesuit, despite the fact that Peck consistently called Martin a liar and manipulator. Other criticisms leveled against Peck include misdiagnoses based upon a lack of knowledge regarding dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder), and a claim that he had transgressed the boundaries of professional ethics by attempting to persuade his patients into accepting Christianity.

Ancient Near East
Mesopotamia
In Chaldean mythology the seven evil deities were known as shedu, meaning storm-demons. They were represented in winged bull form, derived from the colossal bulls used as protective genii of royal palaces, the name "shed" assumed also the meaning of a propitious genius in Babylonian magic literature.
It was from Chaldea that the name "shedu" came to the Israelites, and so the writers of the Tanach applied the word as a dylogism to the Canaanite deities in the two passages quoted. But they also spoke of "the destroyer" (Exodus xii. 23) as a demon whose malignant effect upon the houses of the Israelites was to be warded off by the blood of the paschal sacrifice sprinkled upon the lintel and the door-post (a corresponding pagan talisman is mentioned in Isaiah lvii. 8). In II Samuel xxiv; 16 and II Chronicles xxi. 15 the pestilence-dealing demon is called "the destroying angel" (compare "the angel of the Lord" in II Kings xix. 35; Isaiah xxxvii. 36), because, although they are demons, these "evil messengers" (Psalms lxxviii. 49; A. V. "evil angels") do only the bidding of God; they are the agents of His divine wrath.
There are indications that popular Hebrew mythology ascribed to the demons a certain independence, a malevolent character of their own, because they are believed to come forth, not from the heavenly abode of God, but from the nether world.
Hebrew demons were workers of harm. To them were ascribed the various diseases, particularly such as affect the brain and the inner parts. Hence there was a fear of "Shabriri" (lit. "dazzling glare"), the demon of blindness, who rests on uncovered water at night and strikes those with blindness who drink of it; also mentioned were the spirit of catalepsy and the spirit of headache, the demon of epilepsy, and the spirit of nightmare.
These demons were supposed to enter the body and cause the disease while overwhelming or "seizing" the victim (hence "seizure"). To cure such diseases it was necessary to draw out the evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, in which the Essenes excelled. Josephus, who speaks of demons as "spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill them", but which can be driven out by a certain root, witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian, and ascribed its origin to King Solomon.

Ancient Arabia

Pre-Islamic mythology does not discriminate between gods and demons. The jinn are considered as divinities of inferior rank, having many human attributes: they eat, drink, and procreate their kind, sometimes in conjunction with human beings. The jinn smell and lick things, and have a liking for remnants of food. In eating they use the left hand. Usually they haunt waste and deserted places, especially the thickets where wild beasts gather. Cemeteries and dirty places are also favorite abodes. When appearing to man, jinn sometimes assume the forms of beasts and sometimes those of men.
Generally, jinn are peaceable and well disposed toward men. Many a pre-Islamic poet was believed to have been inspired by good jinn, but there are also evil jinn, who contrive to injure men.

Hebrew Bible

Those in the Hebrew Bible are of two classes, the se'irim and the shedim. The se'irim ("hairy beings"), to which some Israelites offered sacrifices in the open fields, are satyr-like creatures, described as dancing in the wilderness, and which are identical with the jinn, such as Dantalion, the 71st spirit of Solomon. (But compare the completely European woodwose.) Possibly to the same class belongs Azazel, the goat-like demons of the wilderness, probably the chief of the se'irim, and Lilith. Possibly "the roes and hinds of the field", by which Shulamit conjures the daughters of Jerusalem to bring her back to her lover, are faunlike spirits similar to the se'irim, though of a harmless nature.
The evil spirit that troubled Saul (I Samuel 16:14 et seq.) may have been a demon,[citation needed] though the Masoretic text tells us that the spirit was sent by God.
Some benevolent shedim were used in kabbalistic ceremonies (as with the golem of Rabbi Yehuda Loevy), and malevolent shedim (mazikin, from the root meaning "to damage") were often creedited with possession. Similarly, a shed might inhabit an otherwise inanimate statue.

Judaism
Main article: Jewish demonology

In some rabbinic sources, the demons were believed to be under the dominion of a king or chief, either Asmodai[20] or, in the older Haggadah, Samael ("the angel of death"), who kills by his deadly poison, and is called "chief of the devils". Occasionally a demon is called "satan": "Stand not in the way of an ox when coming from the pasture, for Satan dances between his horns".
Demonology never became an essential feature of Jewish theology.[citation needed] The reality of demons was never questioned by the Talmudists and late rabbis; most accepted their existence as a fact. Nor did most of the medieval thinkers question their reality. Only rationalists like Maimonides and Abraham ibn Ezra, clearly denied their existence. Their point of view eventually became the mainstream Jewish understanding.
Rabbinical demonology has three classes of demons, though they are scarcely separable one from another. There were the shedim, the mazziḳim ("harmers"), and the ruḥin ("spirits"). Besides these there were lilin ("night spirits"), ṭelane ("shade", or "evening spirits"), ṭiharire ("midday spirits"), and ẓafrire ("morning spirits"), as well as the "demons that bring famine" and "such as cause storm and earthquake" (Targ. Yer. to Deuteronomy xxxii. 24 and Numbers vi. 24; Targ. to Cant. iii. 8, iv. 6; Eccl. ii. 5; Ps. xci. 5, 6.)[22]

Christian demonology

"Demon" has a number of meanings, all related to the idea of a spirit that inhabited a place, or that accompanied a person. Whether such a daemon was benevolent or malevolent, the Greek word meant something different from the later medieval notions of 'demon', and scholars debate the time in which first century usage by Jews and Christians in its original Greek sense became transformed to the later medieval sense. Some denominations asserting Christian faith also include, exclusively or otherwise, fallen angels as de facto demons; this definition also covers the "sons of God" described in Genesis who abandoned their posts in heaven to mate with human women on Earth before the Deluge.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus casts out many demons, or evil spirits, from those who are afflicted with various ailments. Jesus is far superior to the power of demons over the beings that they inhabit, and he is able to free these victims by commanding and casting out the demons, by binding them, and forbidding them to return. Jesus also lends this power to some of his disciples, who rejoice at their new found ability to cast out all demons. The demons are cast out by the pronunciation of a name according to Matthew 7:22, some groups insisting the original pronunciation of the name Jesus and pure form of worship be used i.e. Yahshua / Joshua meaning "Yahweh is salvation".
By way of contrast, in the book of Acts a group of Judaistic exorcists known as the sons of Sceva try to cast out a very powerful spirit without believing in or knowing Jesus, but fail with disastrous consequences. However Jesus himself never fails to vanquish a demon, no matter how powerful (see the account of the demon-possessed man at Gerasim), and even defeats Satan in the wilderness (see Gospel of Matthew).
There is a description in the Book of Revelation 12:7-17 of a battle between God's army and Satan's followers, and their subsequent expulsion from Heaven to Earth to persecute humans — although this event is related as being foretold and taking place in the future. In Luke 10:18 it is mentioned that a power granted by Jesus to cast out demons made Satan "fall like lightning from heaven."
Augustine of Hippo's reading of Apuleius, in City of God (Bk. IX, ch.11) is ambiguous as to whether daemons had become 'demonized' by the early 5th century:
"He [Apulieus] also states that the blessed are called in Greek eudaimones, because they are good souls, that is to say, good demons, confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons.
The contemporary Roman Catholic Church unequivocally teaches that angels and demons are real personal beings, not just symbolic devices. The Catholic Church has a cadre of officially sanctioned exorcists which perform many exorcisms each year. The exorcists of the Catholic Church teach that demons attack humans continually but that afflicted persons can be effectively healed and protected either by the formal rite of exorcism, authorized to be performed only by bishops and those they designate, or by prayers of deliverance which any Christian can offer for themselves or others.
Building upon the few references to daemons in the New Testament, especially the visionary poetry of the Apocalypse of John, Christian writers of apocrypha from the 2nd century onwards created a more complicated tapestry of beliefs about "demons" that was largely independent of Christian scripture.
At various times in Christian history, attempts have been made to classify these beings according to various proposed demonic hierarchies.
According to most Christian demonology demons will be eternally punished and never reconciled with God. Other theories postulate a Universal reconciliation, in which Satan, the fallen angels, and the souls of the dead that were condemned to Hell are reconciled with God. This doctrine is today often associated with the Unification Church. Origen, Jerome and Gregory of Nyssa also mentioned this possibility.
In contemporary Christianity, demons are generally considered to be angels who fell from grace by rebelling against God. However, other schools of thought in Christianity or Judaism teach that demons, or evil spirits, are a result of the sexual relationships between fallen angels and human women. When these hybrids (Nephilim) died they left behind disembodied spirits that "roam the earth in search of rest" (Luke 11:24). Many non-canonical historical texts describe in detail these unions and the consequences thereof. This belief is repeated in other major ancient religions and mythologies. Christians who reject this view do so by ascribing the description of "Sons of God" in Genesis 6 to be the sons of Seth (one of Adam's sons).
There are some who say that the sin of the angels was pride and disobedience, these being the sins that caused Satan's downfall (Ezek. 28). If this be the true view, then we are to understand the words, "estate" or "principality" in Deuteronomy 32:8 and Jude 6 ("And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.") as indicating that instead of being satisfied with the dignity once for all assigned to them under the Son of God, they aspired higher.

Renaissance Demonology

Although no canon of Renaissance demonology exist, the interest in classic Greco-Roman culture, philosophy, science and Greek and Roman mythology also created a playground for experience with, what was supposed to be a pre-cristian religious praxis. Most notably found in popular culture like the legend of Faust.

Islam

Islam recognizes the existence of the jinn, which are sentient beings with free will that can co-exist with humans and are not all evil as demons are described in Christianity. In Islam, the evil jinns are referred to as the shayātīn, or devils, and Iblis (Satan) is their chief. Iblis was the first Jinn who disobeyed Allah. According to Islam, the jinn are made from the fire (whereas angels are made from light and mankind is made from altered clay).
According to the Qur'an, when Allah created Adam from clay, all the angels and Iblis himself was ordered to bow before Adam as humans are superior than any of Allah's Creation. Iblis became very jealous and said that humans are not the superior creations but jinns are as they are made of fire and humans are made of clay and he disobeyed Allah.
Adam was the first prophet and deputy of the human race, and as such was the greatest creation of Allah. Iblis could not stand this, and refused to acknowledge a creature made of "mud" (man). Allah, thus, condemned Iblis to be punished in the hellfire. But Iblis asked for respite until the last day to which Allah agreed, but warned that he and all whom would follow him in evil would be punished in hell. Allah also stated that Iblis would only be able to mislead those who have forsaken Allah and not the righteous believers.
Adam and Eve (Hawwa in Arabic) were both together misled by Iblis into eating the forbidden fruit, and consequently fell from the garden of Eden (allegorical) into a state of degeneration.
Jinns are not the "genies" of modern lore. The word "genie" comes from the French 'génie' for genius used in translations of Arabic text and only sounds coincidentally like the Arabic jinn. This is not surprising considering the story of `Alā' ad-Dīn, (anglicized as Aladdin), passed through Arabian merchants en route to Europe.

Hinduism

Hindu mythology include numerous varieties of spirits that might be classified as demons, including Vetalas, Yakshas, Bhutas and Pishachas. Often Rakshasas and Asuras are taken to mean demons.

Originally, Asura, in the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda, meant any supernatural spirit, both good and bad. Since the /s/ of the Indic linguistic branch is cognate with the /h/ of the Early Iranian languages, the word Asura, representing a category of celestial beings, became the word Ahura (Mazda), the Supreme God of the monotheistic Zoroastrians. Ancient Hinduism tells that Devas and Asuras are half-brothers, sons of the same father Kasyapa; but some of the devas, like Varuna, are also named Asuras. But much later at puranic age Asura (also Rakshasa) came to exclusively mean any of a race of anthropomorphic, powerful, possibly evil beings. All words such as Asura, Daitya (lit., sons of the mother "Diti"), Rakshasa (lit. from "harm to be guarded against") are incorrectly translated into English as demon.
Asuras do accept and worship the Gods, particularly the Hindu triumvirate; some of the rakshasas like Ravana and Mahabali are exemplary devotees. Often the strife between the asuras and the devas is simply a political one: devas are the ordained maintainers of the realms with power (and immortality) accorded to them by the gods and asuras ever strive to attain both. Asuras usually attain or enhance their supernatural powers through penance to gods and waging war on devas using powers thus attained. Unlike Christian notion of demons, asuras are not the cause of the evil and unhappiness in mankind (unhappiness in humans, according to Hinduism is by one's own actions (Karma) and/or due to the continued ignorance of Brahman, the unchanging reality. Asuras, if any, are cogs in the wheel of Karma); they are not fundamentally against the Gods, nor do they tempt humans to fall. In fact, asuras, much like devas, do worship the Gods of Hinduism: many Asuras are said to have been granted boons from one of the members of the Hindu trinity, viz., Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva when the latter had been appeased from their penances. This is markedly different from the traditional Western notions of demons as a rival army of God. In Hindu mythology, pious, highly enlightened asuras, like Prahlada and Vibheeshana, are not at all uncommon. Prahlada even said to have secured enlightenment to his entire lineage (of asuras). All Asuras, unlike the devas, are said to have born mortals (though they ever strive to become immortal). Many people metaphorically interpret asuras as manifestations of the ignoble passions in human mind and as a symbolic device. There were also cases of power-hungry asuras challenging various aspects of Gods, but only to be defeated eventually and seek forgiveness—see Surapadman, Narakasura.

Evil spirits

Hinduism advocates the theory of reincarnation and transmigration of souls according to one's Karma. Souls (Atman) of the dead are adjudged by the Yama and are accorded various purging punishments before being reborn. Humans that have committed extraordinary wrongs are condemned to roam as lonely, often evil, spirits for a length of time before being reborn. Many kinds of such spirits (Vetalas, Pishachas, Bhūta) are recognized in the later Hindu texts. These beings, in a limited sense, can be called demons.

Bahá'í Faith

In the Bahá'í Faith, demons are not regarded as independent evil spirits as they are in some faiths. All evil spirits described in various faith traditions such as satan, fallen angels, demons and jinns are metaphors for the base character traits a human being may acquire and manifest when he turns away from God and follows his lower nature. Belief in the existence of ghosts and earthbound spirits is rejected and considered to be the product of superstition.


How To Spot A Demon

You can spot them in your life or if they are near you if you feel or have these things happening to you:

· You live a “tore up” lifestyle.
· Your home is dysfunctional.
· You have only known lack/poverty.
· You have a problem with lust, and you are married…or single.
· You are unstable and restless.
· You see the negative in everything and are never happy.
· You can’t hold a job.
· You fight all the time and with everyone around you.
· You are sleeping with a person that you are not married to (fornication).

You can also spot them by feeling that high EMF if you're walking around town. Plus, they give off a negative energy and sometimes shine their different color eyes if the sun hits them just right. They are usually the person or thing that is hidden from everyone else. They keep themselves distant.

EMF stands for Electro Magnetic Field. If you are sensitive to this then you will experence nervousness, tension, and it can be extremely worse for others. Others who have it worse can even get violently ill and even "see things" that aren't even there. In this case, demons can do this to people.

Human Form and Demon Form

Human Form

Their human form can look just like you if they wanted to. Yes, they can take a host just like the angels can. Although they can form a human-like figure to use with their black mists. Usually though, they take a human host and possess the body. It affects them in some way by making them feel the human's emotions or having their memory, but that usually goes away over time.

Demon Form

It depends on the demon really. They can have as many colors, horns, eyes, legs and arms. Demons can come in any shape or form and can be extremely huge or extremely little. It just depends on what demon you're looking at and are talking about. Some can have wings with horns and a long tail with an arrow at the end. The demon form can turn into a black mist to go back inside of the human body. This gives them the advantage because know one will know what they look like. Demons and Satan can disguise themselves as angels of light, or they can look like the horrid creatures they are, and they can take on the appearance of a person who died - the most common kind of ghost people might see. If they force themselves to change to their demon form it could hurt the human host and possibly make the host die. Without the host they are exposed and easily spotted by angels.

Powers and Weaknesses:

Demonic Possession - Like angels, demons require a human vessel or "meat suit" to travel on Earth. Unlike angels, they do not need a person's consent. Also, unlike angels, demons can possess corpses. It is easier to take control of people who are in states of heightened emotions or fear. This ability can be thwarted by Anti-possession tattoos. Also under certain cirstances, the person being possessed can regain control if his or her will is strong enough.

Electromagnetic Interference - Demons, like spirits, often disrupt nearby electronics with their presence.

Flight - Only when in their natural forms.

Immortality - Demons have an indefinitely long lifespan and an arrested aging process.

Invulnerability - Injuries that would be fatal to humans, such as broken necks or gunshot wounds, have very little - if any - effect on demons. They can only be killed by special weapons or rituals. Unlike angels they don't heal their vessels. If the "meatsuit" receives too much damage they simply find another human to possess, leaving their former vessel to die.


Super stamina - Demons never tire, and do not require food, water, oxygen, or sleep to sustain themselves. They do not even get hot or cold.

Super strength - Demons possess superior physical strength compared to that of humans; capable of physically overpowering humans and most monsters. The higher ranking the demon, the stronger it is. The highest ranking demons can overpower low-level angels.

Supernatural Perception - Demons are able to see hidden supernatural activity and beings, such as Reapers, ghosts, and Hellhounds.

Supernatural Senses - Demons have an enhanced sense of smell and taste

Telekinesis - Demons can move or suspend objects and other beings with their minds. Higher ranking demons can use this ability to kill people by snapping their necks.


Biokinesis - Some demons can manipulate the biology of other beings.

Electrokinesis - Can manipulate electronic equipment to their will.

Invisibility - Some demons can become invisible to humans.


Pyrokinesis - Some demons can generate and manipulate fire. They can extinguish a Holy Fire circle by snapping their fingers, and also pretended to set himself on fire.

Soul Reading - Some demons, particularly Crossroad Demons, can assess the condition of one's soul.

Spell Casting - Some demons can practice witchcraft, much like witches, like altering the range/space they occupy. Other demons are adept in Enochian magic which they use to protect themselves from Angels.

Teleportation - Some demons can travel from one place to another instantly, without occupying the space in between.

Terrakinesis - Limited; Some demons can create small earthquakes.

Thermokinesis - the ability to look at an object and make it extremely hot like hell fire.

Healing - Used by Crowley, he is the only demon who has shown the ability to heal others out of the context of a deal, albeit a small wound. (All Dogs Go To Heaven)


Access to/from Hell - High ranking demons such as Azazel, Alastair, and Crowley can easily teleport themselves back and forth between Earth and Hell, without the need for any complex summoning ritual or assistance.

Dream Walking - Displayed only on the special children. They can enter and control the dreams of their targets.

Enhanced Immunity - As a general rule, the more powerful the demon, the more resistant they are to harm and common anti-demon methods such as salt and Holy Water.


Memory Manipulation -can make a human forget everything if desired

Summoning - Demons cansummon and control various monsters, ghosts and the likes

Weather Manipulation - Demons can cause lightning storms, and sudden gusts of wind with its mere presence if desired

White Light - High ranking demons can use this to generate massive amounts of destructive energy that can obliterate large areas.

Special Powers:


Healing - In the context of a deal, crossroads demons can heal themselves and others of any wound.

Resurrection - One of the wishes demons can grant is the resurrection of a loved one.


Weaknesses:

Devil's Trap - A Devil's Trap will hold a demon in place and prevent its escape. The Trap will also prevent low-level demons from using their powers, though Castiel's Enochian circle was able to completely bind even Alastair's abilities. It also locks a demon inside its host unless it is exorcized. For some reason, a demon inside a trap is usually unable to do anything to damage the integrity of the circle, which would allow its escape.

Salt - Demons are unable to cross a line of salt and can do very little to damage the line at all. They can't even open doors lined with salt if opening it would break the line. Salt can also be used to torture demons by making them ingest it or by injecting them with salt-water. It can also be put into shotgun rounds to hurt and knock back demons.


Holy Water - Holy Water burns demons that come into contact with it, like acid. It proved ineffective against high-tier demons like Azazel or Lilith

Iron - A demon can't touch iron without its skin burning or cross it if it is used to erect a barrier, much like salt. Samhain is immune to this weakness and Tammi and Alastair are resistant to it.

Palo Santo - Basically a wooden, hybridized version of salt and holy water. When a demon is stabbed with it, it causes the wound to smoke and painfully pins the demon to a single spot, immobilizing them long enough to perform an exorcism. Palo Santo isn't commonly used by many hunters due to the fact that it damages the hosts the demons are possessing. (The Magnificent Seven)


Flesh Sigil - By carving a particular sigil into a demon's possessed flesh, it is possible to lock the demon within its host and disable its powers, the most important one being teleportation. However, demons with these sigils are not bound to a single place and can roam around freely if not restrained by some other means.


Holy Fire - Though not fatal to demons as it is to Angels, Holy Fire can cause demons extreme pain

Purified blood - The blood of a person who has confessed his/her sins is shown to be able to hurt Demons if injected into them, however Higher Tier Demons are shown to be less effected.
Banishing or destroying DemonsEdit



Angel's Touch - An Angel can kill a demon by touching them on the forehead with their hand. The host is also killed as a result. This power will not work for normal angels if the demon is too powerful or if the angel is cut off from Heaven. Higher level angels, however, can kill even the most powerful of demons this way.


Exorcism - Will pull the demon out of its host and send it to Hell. Hosts may not survive. Reciting the exorcism backwards will force the demon back into its host. Very powerful demons are immune to exorcism


The Colt -This will kill any demon that is shot while within a host if the shot is a fatal one. It is more powerful, however, as it affects upper level demons as well, even when the Knife does not.

Bones - If the bones belonging to the demon are burned, the demon will be killed much like a vengeful spirit. This can also be used to torture demons. This until recently was believed to be merely a rumor, however Bobby tested this method against a Crossroads Demon resulting in her death. This tactic is very difficult to use because it requires knowing the demon's human name from before it died and where they were buried, and many demons themselves can no longer remember they were ever human at all, let alone what their names were.

Death's Scythe - Death's Scythe can probably kill demons, as it is capable
of reaping just about anything.

Ingestion of Salt - Under some cirstances, the ingestion of large quantities of salt can force a demon to vacate its host.

Unknown Virgin Sacrifice Spell - Not much is known about the ritual except that it requires cutting the heart out of a virgin.
Upper Tier Demons - so it is assumed that a more powerful demon is able to destroy lower level demons. However, this may have been through the use of a weapon as he later uses an Angel Blade to kill demons.

Demon Cure - It's possible to turn a demon into a human again if, in a sacred ground, a human injects his own "pure" blood in a Demon. The blood must be given hourly for eight hours. In the last dose, the blood must be fresh and the donor must tell before the exorcism: "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, hanc animam redintegra, lustra, lustra".

Angel Blade - In Torn and Frayed, it is shown that an Angel Blade can be used to kill a demon.

Archangel Blade - Even more powerful and can kill almost every demon

Special children: children can develop special abilities almost especially tailored to hurt or kill demons. Although unknown, it is assumed the special children can drink demon blood and are able to have some demon powers and can kill demons as well as humans.

Hellhounds - Hellhounds can overpower and kill demons as easily as they can kill humans.

Leviathan - Leviathan find demonkind to be a "mutation" and in one instance, called a demon "unimpressive". Furthermore, as they can kill Angels (beings who are undoubtedly stronger), they can almost certainly overpower and kill demons too.

Hallowed Ground - Most demons (lower-level ones), are unable to enter hallowed ground, however stronger ones can. It is unclear if this includes cemeteries as well as churches. (Salvation)

Hexbags - Hexbags can be used to hide people from demons as well as angels.
Physical damage - Though demons themselves cannot be harmed by conventional means, severe damage to their meat suits (such as severed limbs), will slow them down. If a vessel aculates too much damage (which they commonly do), the demon will be forced to abandon its meat suit and search for a new one.